It is instructive to observe the care taken by the Lord to inform and prepare His disciples for the difficulties they soon would face. He explains what is going to happen, why it will happen and the reason for telling them now. The time is fast approaching when they will be opposed, expelled from the synagogue, even slain in the name of God. They will be persecuted because the religious Jews are ignorant of God and devoid of faith in Christ. He is telling them now to prepare them for it. Such things are to be expected. The Lord’s people ought not to be surprised and need not be offended. 

It is the Lord Jesus Christ who tells His followers that if we are men and women of faith then we are not of this world. In Jesus Christ you and I are already heavenly people according to His gift of grace in the new creation. This is another wonderful statement to thrill our hearts from the lips of the Master. Once we were of this world. We were born into it, tutored under its direction and followed its paths. Like Adam, the first man, we were of the earth, earthy.